Browsing Posts published in July, 2012

Disappearing Diners

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From the time I first started bicycle touring back in the mid-90s, my modus operandi has always been to eat a small breakfast in camp when I wake up, then ride 10 or 15 miles until I come to a town and stop at the local diner for a big breakfast. Breakfast is about the cheapest meal you can […]

With the triple-H weather and headwinds all the way, our goal for the day was to make the ~40 miles to Concord NH today. Leaving Meredith we were immediately confronted with a mile and a quarter long uphill, and even that goal seemed like it might be a bit ambitious. But the hills moderated, the […]

I woke up this morning, after a sound and solid 10 1/2 hours of sleep, and realized I was just too tired to crank my biycle down the road today. Jodi must have been tired as well because she readily agreed to a day off, so after breakfast at a local diner we checked with […]

We slept really well last night in Dave & Pam’s guestroom, then enjoyed a huge breakfast. All this gave us a slightly late start to the day. Dave joined us for the first ten miles of the ride, which included the step climb up to Franconia Notch and the start of the bike path through […]

After yesterday’s ride of only 20 miles that turned out to be so grueling, I think both Jodi and I were feeling all of our years and not really looking forward to today’s ride. And as it turned out, it was a rather pleasant day! Reed cooked up giant buckwheat pancakes with fresh apple slices […]

Last night I sent an email off to a Warmshowers (www.warmshowers.org) host knowing that we had to deal with Jodi’s rear wheel today and likely would not be able to ride very many miles today. This morning I got a phone call from Reed confirming that we would be welcome to stay with him and […]

It is amazing how the terrain can change within a single day’s ride. Apparently Granby sits at the edge of the big plain that stretches from the Vermont line north to Montreal. We left Granby on La Route Verte 1 heading mostly east towards Waterloo. The bike path was paved in this section and even […]

We had a fun day in Montreal yesterday. We even took a Grayline bus tour, which is not something we would usually do. The bus tour got us out of downtown without having to cycle anywhere so we could see the Olympic Village and get to the top of Mont Royal, among other places. But […]

It is actually Tuesday the 10th as I write this. We got into Montreal just a bit after noon yesterday but the hostel we are staying at does not offer WiFi so I couldn’t update the blog. This morning we are sitting in a diner in the downtown business district having a very leisurely breakfast, […]

We made it into Canada today, but it wasn’t easy. The wind was against us the whole way. First, we had to ride the miles we didn’t ride yesterday since we cut our ride short at the Motel 6. That added 19 miles to today’s ride, for a total of about 75 miles. We rode […]

It was wickedly humid and hot last night while we were camped at Button Bay. We cooled off in the afternoon swimming in the pool, but it was difficult sleeping due to the heat and humidity. This morning when we got up the air was heavy and still, and soon after we set out it […]

Finally, a day without head winds! It was so nice pedaling without having to slog into the wind all day. We left the campground and rode 10 miles or so to Middlebury, where we stopped for a very substantial breakfast at the Park Diner. Jodi had a stack of 3 blueberry pancakes with real Vermont […]

Yesterday we did nothing. Somehow it filled the day, in a very relaxing way. In the morning we got a ride into town from Jeff and went to Up For Breakfast for, well, breakfast. Then we walked down the street to the Northshire Bookstore, which is a wonderful independent book store with an eclectic selection […]

We tried to get an early start this morning, so we left the motel around 7am and rode back into downtown to the only breakfast place we knew of, the Backside Cafe. Unfortunately, the cafe doesn’t open until 8am. We did a bit of reconnoitering to see if there was anyplace else to eat, but […]

It was a beautiful morning when we left the campground this morning, cool and calm. We followed minor roads with good surface and no traffic. It was a nice way to start the day. Then we turned the corner and suddenly found ourselves confronted with a wall. Within moments we were dismounted and pushing our […]

We cheated a bit on the start of our trip. Instead of riding through the traffic mess of Boston we rode down to the Quincy Center ‘T’ station and got on the Red Line train all the way to it’s terminus at Alewife station. The Alewife station is right next to the beginning of the […]

Riding Weather

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Sunday Partly cloudy with a chance of a thunderstorm and a chance of rain in the afternoon. High of 91F. Winds from the WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 20%. We will be heading pretty much WNW from Quincy today, which means we’ll have the wind working against us off our port […]